US1280668A - Rotary engine. - Google Patents

Description

s. comm'. ROTARY ENGINE.

APPEICATION FILED JUNE M1915.

si. CIINKLIN.

ROTARY ENGINE.

I APPLICATION FILED IUNE 4. IsIs.

Patented 0@I.,8,1918.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 3.

Bruce Cdn/riff? I ifforw/ the kind as heretofore suggested.

i s'rnfrns PATENT onirica.

BRUcEcoNxLIN, or wEsri/LINSTER, ENGLAND.

i ROTARY ENGINE. p

To all whomc't may concern.' Y

- Be it knowny that-I, BRUCE CONKLIN, a citizen of the United States of America, residing at Westminsteniin the county of Middlesex, England, have invented a new and useful Improvement in and Relating to Rotary Engines, of which the following is a specification. j v

My invention has reference to rotary engines of the kind comprising a stationary inner drum having a plurality of rotary abutments and an outer rotary casing having a plurality v.of vanes-the annular working cylinder being formed bythe space between the drum and the casing. Y

AThe primary object I have in'view is to provide an improved engine of the aforesaid type which while being simple in construction and positive in operation shall be adapted to be employed asa prime mover actuated by steamcompressed air or other expansible fluid or used as a compressor pump blower or exhauster.

Among the further objects of the invention are to provide an engine of the above mentioned kind in which there shall be an entire absence of positively actuated valve Amechanism' for the distribution of the working fluidto providev improved means for lubricating the parts and generally to proyduce an engine which shall `be more efficient for-the ends in viewfthan` devices of With the aforementioned vand other objects in view as may hereinafter appear or are incidentaltheretofthe present invention in its broadest `aspect maybe said to` contemplate ,within the scopeof the appended claims a construction of the aforesaid kind inV Whichl the inner stationary drumserves as ra steam chest 0r working uid chambersaid working fluid ybeing ,distributed through ports in the periphery thereof to ports Y in the outer` rotating casing whence itis conductedby suitable passages'in said casing to the annular chamber to drive the vanes the exhaustjof the fluid being effected throughports in the drum communieating with the exhaust passages therein.

yBy this feature of my invention considerable economies result due .to-alessenmgof the usual condensation diflculties.

A further feature of `myinvention is that `in normal running the ports communicatr'ing with maintain the expansion chamber ,Y Valways their like character thus an inlet specification of Letters Patent.

port for the working fluid alwaysremains an inlet port and` an exhaust port always remains an exhaust port. The advantage of this construction in the case when steam is theworking iuid is manifest as the possibility for condensation is reduced to av Patented Oct. 8, 1918.

. Application lcd June 4, 1915. Serial No. 32,177. Y f

same fully for which purpose reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings in which VFigure 1 is a sectional View of a rotary engine embodying my improvements taken .substantially on the line a-a of Fig. 3.

Y Fig. 2 is a section-but drawn to a smaller scale-taken along the line b-b of Fig.1 illustrating the arrangement vofthe induction ports to the expansion chamber from the stationary drum. Y. ,y f

Fig. 3 is a section-also on a smaller scale-taken along the line c-c` of Fig. `1

illustrating more especially the arrange-y y ment of the vanes, ports ments. l Fig. 4 is a section-*on asmaller scalealong the line cZ-Z of Fig. 1 illustrating the arrangement of the exhaust passages.L

and the rotary abut VFig. 5'is aldetail view ofthe 'packing-` y rings hereinafter described and Vthe means for Vadjusting same. Y, y y l v Referring now to Figs. 1 and 2 the working fluid is. normally made to enter aholl',

low druml by means of a tubular shaft 2 .supported rigidly at one end by -means of the end bearingk 3 and'on they other endfis made to nest by means of the roller bearings 4 within `a rotating casing 5 journaled at onefend by means of roller bearings k6 on an end bearing 7 similar toend bearing 3 :and on the other end of the casingbymeans of Aa, roller bearing 8-about `thestationaryA A10 ofthe casing (Figs. 1 and ,2)fwhen, these Ilatter ports arein register vas will. happen in,

entering the lhollow shafty .2 i

the course of the rotation of the casing 5 with respect to the stationary drum 1y. The

fluid then passes by way of the elongatedV port 11 in the casing to the eXpansionlor working chamber 111 determined by theretating .vane v12k the rotary abutment13 the "stationary drum 1` andthe inner wall of the rotatin casing 5. The expansion of the fluid within the chamber 111 will continue till y'the vane 12 reaches and passes within the pocket 14C in the -rotary abutment 131 when the position of theparts will be as shown by the vane 1211 in the pocket of the rotary abutment 131 inv Fig. 3. The proper timing of the rotary abutments with respect to the vanes is obtained by means of the.v gear 15L (Fig. 1) :attached tothe rotating casing 5 engaging with a spur 16 which in turn `engages with a gear 17 keyed to the :shaftof each of the lrotary* abutments.l

When therotary vane 12 reaches thefposition indicated at 1211 in'F ig. 3 practically i theentire amount of the possible expansion of the fluid entering through the port 11 has taken place in the chamber 111 and during escribed isrepeated as'each of the vanes successively pass the rotary abutments.

In order to avoid any possibilityfof leakage taking place past any of the vanes I provide a packing strip 21 (see` Fig. 1) pressed inwardly by springs 25 which nest within theportion 26 of the vane attached to the casing 5 by means of thebolts 27.

rOn the other'hand I also provide packing rings 28 29 which are preferablywsplit as shown and engage with the'surface loffthe stationary drum 1 to overcomey any 'tendency toward leakage on a lateral kdirectionv tothe face, of the drum. rrlhese packing rings which are in the nature of :piston rings I preferably hold inplac'e lby means of wires 3 0 (see Fig. .5) engaging. the rings 28429 circularly which wires are caused to cross each other neartheir ends andv are led out ofthe rotating casing l5 into' pockets 31 whereby means of. the nuts and washers v32 an abutment isformed for *they Asprings 33,*engag1ng with Vthe Walls of` kkthe pockets 131 .to hold the rings 28 V29 in tight .engagement withfgthe stationary l"drum 4VBy this construction the rings l.may be tightened yjto any desired "extent tojcompensate for Awear ,direction lby admitting the through'whatare'normally the-eXhaust--pasder or expansion chamber. It willtherefore f 'be seen that I have provided by myy inven- "tion a very simple compact and efficient flubricating `system for a 'rotary' engine ,devoidfof any `kind `of reciprocation or variable movement whatever. Moreover fby means of the bolts 36 and the fact that I hav-e provided end shields`5 51 for the rotating casing the assembly and disassembly of the machine can be undertaken withlthe minimum amount of time and trouble. Furthermore in order to cut down the losses due to windage I provide a shield 37 which gives a smooth and neat appearance to the engine and at the same time serves to lock in pla-'ce the assemblage of bolts such as 26 used to keep the vanes in place. f

The operation of anl engine embodying vmy invention is as follows: The working fluid entering the drum '1 communicates with the expansion'chamberssuch as 111 (see Fig. 3)

behind thevanes 12 1211 12111`in their'respective order Vof sequence and 1n advance of the rotary abutinents 13131V 1311. The direction of rotation of the outer casing Sis inV consequence clockwise as indicated` by the arrows in the several figures. The timing ofthe induction of the working iiuid corresponds with the relationship vof Jche induction ports 10` on therot'atin'g casin'g 5 and the ports 9 on the stationary drumcoml munication with the internal steam chest space. yThe relationship of these latter-ports is indicated in Fig. 2. Turning now'to Fig.

3 it willbe seen that whereas thel induction ofthe working fluid always'occurs 'through' theports 11 behind'therespective vanes the exhaust for the respective expansionchambers behind the vanes always occurs through the corresponding feXhau'st ports behind the inductionr ports feeding such,y expansion' f chambers. Moreover'the exhaust ports are oppositely arranged with regard t'o the eX- pansion chambers. The exhaust fluid travels parallel and external to the yhollow intake to the usual exhaust pir'e.A v Y Now it Willbe obvioustliat an'sengine conshaft2 to an outlet 23l to theatmosphere Yor i4structed- *as rabove described may be ycaused to `rotate va 4coiunter-'cl'ockwi's-e or reverse werking Huid sages and ports and exhausting through the aforesaid tubular shaft. A signicant fea-- ture of the operation of the engine is that by providing an unequal number of vanes with respect to the rotary abutments the turning moment is very much evened up. It will be seen that in the construction herein described the ports in the drum and outer casing are so disposed relatively to each other as to produce between each two abutments in succession a working stroke or power impulse and exhaust of the previous charge and since there are three abutments and four vanes there will thus be twelve power impulses per revolution of the rotary casing. By increasing the number of rotary abutments and vanes any desired number of power 'impulses per revolution may be obv tained and it may here be pointed outthat as the surfaces of the abutments are in fluid tight contact with the inner smooth surface of the rotating casing said abutments will act as rollers to reduce friction and therefore the greater the number of abutments employed the steadier the engine will run as practically the whole weight of the rotating Y parts will be supported upon said abutments.

I may provide means whereby the effect area of the induction and exhaust ports in the aforesaid drum may bevaried so that on starting or when the load on the engine is increased the amount of high pressure working fluid may also be increased.

It' will of course be apparent that with slight modifications the inner drum may form the rotary element while the outer casing is stationary, in which case the rotary abutments are carried by the outer casing and the vanes by the drum.

I claim:

1. A rotary engine comprising anormally l stationary drum having a plurality of rotary abutments and an outer rotating casing having a plurality of vanes wherein said drum and casing are provided with induction and exhaust ports and passages which as they register cause the working fluid to Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing' the l Washington, D. C.

chamber of the engine and ports and passages in the outer rotating casing for the exhaust of the low pressure fluid. o

3. A rotary engine comprising a normally stationary hollow drum having a plurality of positively rotated abutments and an .outer rotating casing having a plurality of vanes, means for introducing the working fluid to the interior of said hollow drum, ports in the periphery of said drum whereby said working fluid is distributed to the annular working chamber of the engine and ports and passages in the outer rotating casing for the exhaust of the low pressure iuid and means for maintaining a liuid tight joint between the moving parts.

l. A rotary 'engine comprising a normally stationary hollow drum having a plurality of positively rotated abutments and an outer rotating casing having a plurality of vanes, means for introducing the working fluid to the interior of said hollow drum, ports in -means for maintaining a fluid tight joint bef tween the moving parts and means for distributing a lubricantl to the rotating parts. l

BRUCE CONKLIN.

Witnesses:

A. E. WHITE, WALTER MGFARIANE.

Commissioner of lpatents,

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